“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.”

“I know not why, but all the noblest arts hold in perfection but for a very little moment. They soon reach a height from which they begin to decline, and when they have begun to decline it is a pity that they cannot be knocked on the head; for an art is like a living organism—better dead than dying.”

“I said to him one day that the very slender reward which God had attached to the pursuit of serious inquiry was a sufficient proof that He disapproved of it, or at any rate that he did not set much store by it nor wish to encourage it.”

“La vida es el arte de sacar conclusiones suficientes a partir de datos insuficientes.”

“Life is one long process of getting tired.”

“Life is like playing the violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.”

“Brigands demand your money or your life; women require both.”